An attractive public restaurant is characterized by an appearance of neatness and cleanliness. This is difficult to maintain when dining tables quickly become cluttered with various paper and plastic items provided largely in conformance with sanitary regulations. Such items consist of paper envelopes for sugar, waxed paper covers for wafers, paper covers for drinking straws, waxed paper covers for butter pats, plastic jelly containers, tooth picks used with hors d'oeuvres,--not to mention trash associated with smoking, such as plastic cigar covers and paper cigar bands, empty match covers and tops of cigarette packages.
This invention provides a convenient trash receptacle in which diners can dispose of these pieces of paper and plastic as they appear so as to keep them out of sight, at the same time avoiding the possibility of creating a small blaze resulting from trash being carelessly dropped in an ashtray containing an unextinguished cigarette.
Since dining tables either at home, or in public restaurants are often crowded for space, a trash receptacle could take up room in an objectionable manner, so an important feature of this invention is a space-saving arrangement whereby the lid or cover for the receptacle serves as any one of several possible useful functions, such as an ashtray, candle holder, flower vase or table lamp. One embodiment of the invention combines three functions--trash receptacle, ashtray and table lamp--all in one space-saving device.
One prior means of performing table trash disposal has been used in a self-service "fast food" restaurant by providing a large slot in the top of the table, giving access to a container beneath the table. It is obvious that this solution is hardly suitable for an attractive restaurant with cloth-covered tables for which the subject invention is particularly designed in a number of novel embodiments.